Knee Deep In The Dead: Literary Origin

I'm currently doing a search to find out more about the phrase "Knee Deep In The Dead" because I have a feeling as though that's more of a commonplace phrase than something that was coined by Tom Hall.

This caught my interest because of some bands I listen to, Particularly The Swarm which in the band's title is "A.K.A. Knee Deep In The Dead". As well as another band I listen to called Chainsaw to the Face has a song titled "Knee Deep In The Dead."

Upon further research I found that several other bands also have songs titled "Knee Deep In The Dead" such as:
Lollipop Lust Kill
Hexen
Fire From The Gods
Wastelander
Chemikiller

I feel as though this is more of a coincidence than people just paying homages to doom. (However contradictory to my statement, another band I listen to called Rotten Sounds actually did write a song attributed to doom, actually using soundfx from the game in the intro.)

I've been looking on literary quote finders to see if it was a popular phrase used in literature and receiving minimal results. Anyone want to help me out? Or convince me that the members of the bands I listen to are doomers?

At least Hexen's "Knee deep in the dead" is a direct homage to Doom.

Transferred from earth into outer space,
A base on mars; the most desolate place,
Home to secret projects and nuclear waste,
Something's not right, there's this evil I taste.

In the ninth corridor I'd pass on my way,
A gateway stood that the scientists made,
An "inter-dimensional space traveling" door,
That on it's test run opened up to hell's core.

Spewing out all over the radar scan,
An unknown life-form; one never seen by man,
Invading the base killing all who is in sight,
Before I knew it I was the last one alive.

Equipped all my weapons base is on high alert,
No one picking up distress signals I'm sending to earth,
Locked up all sector seven-eight floors,
I'll trap them inside the ninth corridor.

Sector seven-eight's down, destroying all the floors,
Extermination is what they're here for,
I shut off the lights and use infra-red,
Hunting the hunters I'm knee-deep in the dead.

From the shores of hell to our human realm,
The devil sent his minions to overwhelm,
Every one I kill ten emerge from the gate,
They've arrived on earth and it's all too late.

EDIT: BTW this track is awesome.

"Knee deep in (whatever)" is a common expression. Apparently, you'll have to go looking for a 15th century source for the fist known use of knee deep in that sense. As for the whole title, it's not really unusual-sounding or very different from the other titles in the DOOM Bible, so it's possible that Tom Hall just thought it up because it sounded cool. It was originally intended to be the title for the third episode of DOOM (of six plus a commercial game).